Nicole Buffett’s Effecting Openness.

by way of introduction, “this is Sam, an extremely influential private persons in the arts in this town. Tell him why your work is important.” Would you know how to answer? That was an introduction I was not expecting tonight at a fabulous private art event tonight for Nicole Buffett. So now I know I have to craft THAT response! That was a good one! My response was genuine and sincere, I smiled broadly and acknowledged that the person making the introductions was making his best effort to assist me in honing my talking point skills. And that opened the door for conversation about artists and being about to talk about your work and some of the recent events.

The event was for Nicole Buffett who’s paintings are going off to China, 40 of them. I’m looking forward to following her trip online. It’s very exciting!

I have been researching the business aspects of art, presenting, my contact lists, studio, business plan, web development, and networking skills. I’ve read some good articles and given it some thought. Someone like me, without innate social skills, needs to have these things spelled out. Even if it often appears I “do things right,” its not a global learning and I don’t know why or what I’m doing right so I tend to make many mistakes, but reading articles that spell this out for me helps me understand the mechanics of what appears to come naturally to so many others. It was quite helpful and I put it to good use tonight. Although I am aware of one decent gaff at the end of the evening. Hopefully my foible will be over-looked!

I enjoyed the people I met. I planned on meeting 3 people and leaving. I was going to stay for 30 minutes and go to the gym. I stayed for 3 hours. I met Scott, Lisa, Cherry, Bruce, David, Richard, Chris, Anna, Meg, Trenton, and others I’ll remember tomorrow after I sleep. But, I think that’s more than 3!
Funny thing, there was one lovely artist who I just could not remember her name. We walked around together and every time she introduced herself I committed her name to memory only to have it rubbed out! It’s so frustrating! And she didn’t have her cards. So, nothing for me to look at.

Re: the pitch to why is my art important....let’s rule out what I can’t say.
I can’t give my mission statement-to affect people. That’s banal. My art’s important because it affects people? no, that’s not why. It’s important because it captures the zeitgeist? no, that just makes it trendy. It’s important because it grabs ahold of you on an experiential level and keeps you coming back to it, asking more questions for which it doesn’t provide the answers. That’s moving in the right direction. It’s important because it takes an anti-modernist stance, questioning the viewer. Too academic, I can see the eyes glazing over. It’s important because it’s accessible  and has great impact? so what!

I can see this is going to take more thought. One place I can look are the essays that Joe and Dan and Elatia wrote about the work and see how those synthesize down to a single statement. You can buy the book at lulu.com

Networking Do’s and Don’ts I
Networking Do’s and Don’ts II